COMFORT Pt5, High Time
by NiteJasmine
Summary: Dr. House and Dr. Sheridan. A fun story about some crossed up meds and a slightly embarrassed House. And his team finds out he has a real girlfriend. Rated M/Adult for language, & just to be safe!


**COMFORT, Pt 5 HIGH TIME**

**Installment number 5 in this series. I'm really enjoying this whole story line! Dr. Gregory House and Dr. Lauren Sheridan, a neurosurgeon at PPTH, are established in a stable relationship, but only Cuddy really knows about them at this point. This was just a little FUN story about some crossed up meds and House getting a little embarrassed. Oh, and his team finally finds out he has a girlfriend. **

**And don't try to look up the meds, because I made them up! No sex or smut in this one, but rated M/Adult for language and just because it's the safest rating to cover my tail, in case anything slips past the hall monitors, what with all the naughty stuff my muse feeds me. So enjoy!!!**

**All the usual and applicable disclaimers and warnings apply, such as don't like - don't read; I don't own House or any other characters, or anything or anybody else, blah, blah, blah…**

**NITEJASMINE**

COMFORT, Pt 5 "HIGH TIME"

House MD fanfic by NiteJasmine

*****

House was standing at the white board, in the middle of a differential with his team. Cameron had just offered a possibility, Foreman had agreed with her. It not only sounded feasible, but probable, and he was just about to order the battery of tests to prove it when the glass door swung open and Dr. Lauren Sheridan walked into the room with Dr. Laramie, the head of the Orthopedics Department.

House was always happy to see her, she had quickly become the center of his universe, and they had been seeing each other for a few months now. She practically lived at his place, and he was actually allowing himself to feel emotions with her that he had thought long dead and buried. Except for Cuddy, they had managed to keep their relationship pretty quiet. Although they were sure there were suspicions, especially from Wilson and his team, he had successfully deflected any direct inquiries into his personal life. Lauren came around his office occasionally, except when he had a case. She had told him she didn't want to distract him from his work, besides they were always together when he came home.

Which made this visit very much out of the norm. Right away House saw something was wrong. Lauren looked unsteady on her feet, almost like she was drunk. Dr. Laramie was holding Lauren firmly by her left arm, like he was holding her up. He knew the young Orthopedic Doctor had been treating her for her back pain, since that awful trip & fall incident in the lab when her back had gotten slammed against that damn steel rail on the wall. She had told House a couple days ago that she had a follow up appointment scheduled with Laramie this morning. So what the hell?...

When Lauren saw him, her face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning.

"Greg!" She smiled, removing herself from the young Doctors grip and walking quickly over to House. She tucked both of her arms inside his jacket, slightly falling into him and hugging him.

"Hi, baaay-beeeee," she said, snuggling into his chest and smiling. She sounded like someone who had just been whisked to the top of a carnival ride. She rocked a little bit, and House put an arm around her to steady her. She giggled, then started humming to herself and grinning like a moron.

Everyone else in the room was suddenly wide eyed and silent. Foreman's jaw had actually dropped open.

"Baby?" Cameron said, to nobody in particular.

House narrowed his eyes at the Doctor who had brought her in.

"I am soooo sorry Dr. House," the young man stammered, putting his hands up defensively in front of him. A look of fear in his eyes. "There was a big miscommunication with one of my nurses, and we… we screwed up. But she's going to be OK…"

"What did you do?!" Houses demanded.

"Dr. Sheridan was supposed to get a standard dose of Deverol, which I gave her. But the patient in the next bed was supposed to get a heavy dose of Tholazine, for a severe migraine. My nurse accidentally gave it to Dr. Sheridan right after I gave her the Deverol. Again, I am sooo sorry. The Tholazine is just a mild opiate-based hallucinogenic and it should wear off in about 5 hours, and she'll be fine…"

"Opiate based," Foreman spoke up and interrupted him, "So, she's…. _high_?" he asked, smiling a bit.

"As a kite," Dr. Laramie answered. "And completely pain-free for a while too, I might add..." And then his pager went off. "Oops, gotta go," and he turned and bolted out the door. He had told his nurse to page him before he came up here, knowing he would need a hasty exit, and she had been right on time. _She just earned her bonus for this quarter._ He thought to himself as he scurried back to his department, happy to have escaped House's notorious wrath. At least for now.

House looked down at his girlfriend, happily clinging to him. Everyone's eyes in the room were glued to him too, their faces a mix of shock and amusement. It didn't take them long to realize that House and Sheridan were a couple, and apparently had been for a while, their suspicions confirmed.

"Lauren," he finally said, and she looked up at him, he could see how dilated her eyes were. Wow, she was really flying.

"Mmmmm-Hmmmm?" she answered him, with a dreamy smile on her face.

"Hey, what do you say we sit down…" he started, but then her eyes left his face and looked straight up at the ceiling, gazing at the overhead fluorescent fixture. "Oooooooo," she said reverently, "Pretty…." like she was watching a fireworks display. Of course, everyone else looked up at the ceiling too, like idiots.

"Lauren," House said again, sighing, beginning to show some embarrassed frustration. She pulled her eyes from the light show and looked at him again, that big dreamy smile still on her face. She blinked slowly. "Lauren, listen to me. You got an overdose of drugs. Do you understand me? Those morons gave you Tholazine."

"Thooollllazeeeeeen…." She stretched out the word, then giggled.

"Yes, Tholazine," House continued, "You need to lay down. Take a nice long nap. Doesn't that sound nice?"

"Nooooo," she answered, shaking her head with an exaggerated pout, "I feel wayyyyyy to good to go to sleep…" her eyes wandered past him again, focused somewhere outside the window behind him. "Hey," she said as seriously as she could, "Why is there a piano in the sky?"

House heard Cameron and the others trying to suppress their amusement. But, of course, everyone had to go look out the damn window. There _was_ an odd-shaped cloud out there, and it did _kind of_ look like a piano, kind of.

"That's a cloud, not a piano," House told her. But she was undeterred. She smiled dreamily as she stared at the cloud-piano thing, "But there's music coming out of it…" she closed her eyes and swayed slightly to a tune only she could hear. House sighed heavily. He was going to have his hands full until the extra drugs wore off. His team returned to the conference table.

"So, are you going to introduce us?" asked Chase, trying to maintain some self control.

House took a deep breath. "This is Dr. Lauren Sheridan. She's a surgeon. Works upstairs in Neurology. And obviously, she's not feeling her best right now…"

"Oooo, but Greg," Lauren interrupted, "I feel absolutely…." She started, but then stopped, like a new thought had just occurred to her. She perked up, and a huge bright smile spread across her lovely face. "Oh, God, you are sooooooo yummy," and she leaned in and planted a loud kiss on his neck.

The other doctors in the room could not contain themselves, try as they might to stifle their giggles. House looked over and glared at them.

"OK, OK. Show's over kids. You have a patient to go test. And he's been waiting long enough. So go. Now. Out."

They were only too happy to gather their paperwork and hurriedly shuffle out of the room, he could hear them still chuckling and giggling as they headed down the hall.

He stood there for a moment, trying to decide what to do with Lauren. "Hey," he said, and put his hand on her chin, lifting her face up to look at him. She leaned her cheek into his hand, tilting her head. She closed her eyes and made a soft purring sound. _Oh, God,_ he thought, unable to suppress a slight smile himself, _even completely blitzed, you're beautiful._

He heard the door open again, and in walked Cuddy. _Great._ She stopped short when she saw him standing there, holding his lady. She had come up here to badger House about his clinic hours again, but decided to abandon that line of thought for the moment. She raised her eyebrows and said "I thought you two were a secret," she said, smiling smugly.

"Not any more," he answered, "She…" but he didn't get to finish the thought. Lauren heard had turned her head toward the sound of the new voice in the room. As soon as she saw Cuddy, her face clouded over in puzzlement. "Why are _you_ here?" she asked the Dean, slightly slurring the question. "Yooouuuu shouldn't be here," Lauren stuck out her hand and waggled a scolding finger back and forth. "Don't you have work to do?" House reached out, caught Lauren's wrist and pulled her hand back to him. Cuddy looked at Lauren, analyzing. She stepped a little closer, narrowing her eyes. "What's wrong with her?" she asked House sternly. "Nothing." He said, annoyed. "She'll be fine. She's just… high."

"She's what?! House!" barked Cuddy, "What did you do? What did you give her?"

"Nothing!" he retaliated, "I didn't do anything to her! It was those morons down in Ortho! They screwed up her meds, they gave her Tholazine!"

"Oh, God." Cuddy sighed. "How long before she's OK?"

Lauren piped up and said "I'm not _OK_, I'm _super_!" and leaned her head back against Greg's chest, with a soft laugh. "And so are you baby, _my_ baby, mine, mine, mine, mine…" wrapping her arms around him again with a contented sigh and closing her eyes.

"About 5 hours," finished House.

Cuddy shook her head and smiled maternally at him.

"Take her home. And stay there. But you keep your phone on, you have an active case. Remember that," she said finally, and left the room.

"Come on, my little high-flying Angel. Let's go home." He gently turned her around, and she wrapped herself around his left arm. She gazed at him again, with that incredible loving smile. They would have to go a little slowly, but he would have enough room to be able to walk and still keep her close. He guided her out the door and they headed for home.

*****

TBC…


End file.
